goodbye cranbrook looked like an interesting town i would like to have seen a little bit
more of it if i'd had time but this morning i'm still heading east towards alberta oh this is a
big day i'm pretty excited about this i want to visit the frank slide interpretive center
i want to visit the bellevue mines and a number of other smaller things so we're
just gonna see how much i can fit into the day officially entering the province of alberta
a lot of the history in the crow's nest pass is tied to the mines that helped unearth the
passes rich natural resources the bellevue mine tour offers visitors the opportunity to
go underground and get a close-up look at this historic mine the bellevue mine was in operation
from 1905 until 1961 producing and selling coal to the canadian pacific railway to fuel their railway
line i'll post a full video of the mine tour soon but one thing that they didn't highlight
on the tour at least while we were underground was that the bellevue mine was the site of one
of alberta's mining disasters on december 9 1910 a methane gas explosion claimed the lives of 31
out of the 42 men that were on shift if the explosion had happened during a peak period
when there were a couple hundred men in the mine the death toll could have been much much higher
the bellevue mine is located adjacent to the town of bellevue and is the reason for the
town's existence these small towns would spring up as the mine brought jobs and wealth to the area
just finishing up at the bellevue mine tour which was a cool mine tour and i do mean cool because
it was zero degrees underground so time to warm up and i'm gonna head on to the next destination
the leech collieries is another artifact from the crow's nest passes early days these are the ruins
of one of the most impressive and sophisticated early coal mines in the crow's nest pass
it was also the only mine in the past that was fully canadian owned and featured a processing
plant a weigh scale and an impressive line of coke ovens however the leech collieries ended
up closing after just eight years the owners had put all of their effort into development of the
mine in its supporting buildings with not enough focus on production when the first world war
caused coal prices to crash the owners were left deep in debt and the banks foreclosed
the land was sold off and for a period of time another mine worked the company's coal seams
but the buildings themselves were abandoned and fell into ruin
until years later the remains were recognized and preserved as a historic site
the grossness pass is also the site of some of canada's worst disasters
the frank slide occurred on april 29 1903 when 110 million tons of limestone sheared off the
face of turtle mountain and hurtled towards the valley the debris ended up covering a
portion of the nearby town of frank and killed approximately a hundred people
although the exact number's not known and the majority of bodies have never been recovered
highway 3 known as the crow's nest pass travels directly through this debris field
and visitors today still come to view the aftermath of the tremendous forces of nature
and all along here this is all rubble from the slide the scale of this is just incredible
it's just so hard to imagine the power of the earth moving
nearby sits a monument remembering another one of the tragedies that happened in the crow's
nest pass the hillcrest cemetery is the final resting place of the victims of canada's worst
coal mining disaster on june 19 1914 an explosion at the hillcrest mine took the lives of 189 men
almost 20 percent of the town's population was lost in the disaster
and left 90 women widowed and 250 children who lost their fathers
a memorial to the victims was unveiled in the year 2000 and surrounding it are smaller plaques
which remember the many lives lost in other mine disasters that have happened in canada
and this is as far east as i'm going on this trip heading west out of the crow's nest pass
there's so much history wrapped up in one little area there between the mine disasters
and the frank slide the whole area just had this interesting atmosphere about it it's very uh very
open wind-swept kind of area the the winds were incredible i almost lost my hat but that one's
gonna stay on my to-do list i think i'm going to come back and have to explore another time
welcome to sparwood stopping in sparwood to see a world record holder this is the world's largest
tandem axle truck the 1974 terrex titan was a one of a kind truck that held the title of world's
largest truck for over 25 years this incredible machine was built to haul raw materials around
open pit mines and could carry 350 tons in one load in the 1970s the titan was built by kaiser
resources to help with the mining of coal for japanese steel producers and in 1978 it was moved
to the balmore coal mine near sparwood to join a fleet of hundred ton and 200 ton rear dump haulers
these trucks work 24 hours a day performing continuous 12-minute round trips to haul
dirt and rock to the dump site but by the mid-1980s wear and tear started to take its toll
and the cost of maintenance began to increase in 1990 the truck's turbocharger failed and it was
determined that the cost would be too high to replace so the titan was retired from service
finding permanent residence in sparwood and becoming an icon to the strength of the community
and the coal mining industry goodbye sparwood goodbye world's largest tandem axle truck
that was the first wildlife i've seen there was three deer back there just now
first wildlife of this trip four days in
wanted to stop off in creston british columbia for a quick selfie stop at
the columbia brewing company better known as the producers of kokanee beer
of course kokanee is best known for its advertising using sasquatch as a mascot kokanee
beer from the columbia brewing company brewed right in the kootenays unfortunately everything's
closed up tight and no tours going on right now can't get to the beer gear store and unfortunately
can't even get a selfie with the big bottle and glass of beer next time kokanee next time
for tonight's accommodation i'm staying at the historic hotel ymir the ymir hotel was built in
1896 and is the oldest continuously operating hotel in the kootenay region the ymir mine was
first staked in 1895 and others soon followed as a result the town began to boom although it wasn't
officially known as ymir until two years later taking the name from the nearby ymir mountain
today the population of ymir is just over 200 people and the hotel itself has continued to
evolve it was a popular biker bar in the 1980s but more recently it's become home to one of the
largest private collections of artwork in british columbia but that's a story for another time